From Municipal to Regional Immigrant Integration in a Major Emerging Gateway: Creating a Community to Plan a Welcoming Metro Atlanta
The following is an excerpt of our peer-reviewed article entitled “From Municipal to Regional Immigrant Integration in a Major Emerging Gateway: Creating a Community to Plan a Welcoming Metro Atlanta,” published September 11, 2019, in Papers in Applied Geography, by Paul N. McDaniel, Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez, and Jordyne Krumroy.
Abstract: “Welcoming America, a nonprofit organization based in metropolitan Atlanta, has grown a membership network throughout the United States. The network consists of nonprofit organizations and local governments that present their communities as “welcoming” for immigrants and refugees-referred to as ‘Welcoming Cities.’ In 2018, Welcoming America launched the “One Region Initiative” to cultivate a concept of “welcoming region” to transcend municipal boundaries. The pilot initiative took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, a major emerging immigrant gateway, and involved community listening sessions and a 56-member steering committee, representing the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The One Region Initiative disseminated recommendations to the public in a regional strategic welcoming plan in August 2018. Through an applied, community-based participatory research framework, this paper examines the process of the One Region Initiative as an example of a diverse and dynamic epistemic community for addressing challenges and opportunities of immigrant integration and receptivity within a major-emerging immigrant gateway.”
Continue reading and access the full article here from Papers in Applied Geography.
Originally published at https://www.tandfonline.com on September 11, 2019.
